1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of identity theft. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the automatic repair of fraudulent identity theft incidents.
2. Related Art
Identity theft is one of the fastest rising forms of criminal fraud occurring in the United States. Identity theft includes use of an individual's identifying information (social security number, photo ID, credit profile, passport, etc.) for personal or monetary gain or other illicit purposes. That is, identity theft occurs when criminals use a victim's personal information to represent themselves as that victim for fraudulent purposes.
Identity theft extends beyond the common form of credit card fraud, where an unauthorized user accesses a credit account to charge goods or services. With identity theft, the criminal using a victim's personal information can assume the identity of the victim to perform business transaction all in the victim's name, such as, open credit card accounts, open bank loans, create a cell phone account, create utility accounts, lease an apartment, buy a car, etc. Moreover, the criminal may commit crimes in the name of the victim. As such, the victim's personal information in the hands of a skillful criminal will allow the criminal to assume the identity of the victim and cause them damage and potential financial ruin, extending far beyond a credit card bill.
Identity theft can occur when a criminal gets access to documents with compromising personal information to incur monetary damages. For example, in a restaurant setting, a waiter notices that a customer has dropped a pay stub that contains personal information about the customer. After the waiter picks up the pay stub, several pieces of personal information regarding the customer can be found, such as, address, social security number, telephone, pay amount, etc. In addition, the waiter may have access to a copy of a credit card slip if the customer used a credit card to make a payment. The credit card slip gives the waiter a credit card reference and a signature of the victim.
In this case, the waiter, as the criminal, now has enough information to use the customer's identity as his own. As such, the customer becomes the victim of identity theft. The criminal potentially could go a department of motor vehicles, or transport ministry to have an identification or driver's license be issued to the criminal posing as the victim. Moreover, the criminal could go to a bank and open an account with a five thousand dollar overdraft line of credit based on the victim's personal information, the credit card reference, the victims signature, and the identification documentation. When the criminal fraudulently opens the account, overdraws the account and disappears, the victim is left responsible for paying the five thousand dollar overdraft. This is a case of identity theft.
In another case, identity theft can occur when a criminal gets access to documents with compromising personal information that results in criminal charges of the victim. For example, a criminal may retrieve personal information from a victim's trash. Personal information found in the trash could be a bank statement, credit card receipt, water bill, etc. The criminal can use the victim's personal information to generate a fake driver's license using the victim's name, the victim's address, but with the criminal's picture. The water bill can be used as proof of residence. The credit card receipt can be used to obtain a replacement credit card.
In this case, the criminal can go to a rental car agency and rent a car using the replacement credit card. The criminal steals the car and never returns it. As a result, the rental car company will go after the victim for the crime of grand theft auto. The victim is thus charged with the crime of auto theft and is a victim of identity theft.
As shown above, the harm to the victim of identity theft extends beyond mere monetary damages. For instance, the identity theft may cause problems for the victim in obtaining employment, tenancy, or rights to social services. Also, the identity theft may destroy a victim's positive credit rating, which causes accounts to be closed and making it impossible to open new accounts. Moreover, the victim can be subjected to collection actions and creditors seeking remuneration for fraudulent accounts. Additionally, the victim can be subjected to arrest and detention by law enforcement based on activity of a criminal who has assumed the victim's identity. As a result the victim may spend countless sums of money and time to try to proclaim their innocence.
Currently there are no resolution methods or repair services for identity theft cases. Services or software only provide for the notification of the fraudulent identity theft incident to the appropriate authorities and creditors. These services or software do not provide for a repair of the damage incurred from the identity theft incident.
The standard documents for a victim to complete in order to initiate the reclaiming of their identity are the Identity Theft Affidavit (IDTA) and Fraudulent Account Statement (FAS). Once these documents are filed and acted upon by the appropriate creditors and credit bureaus, then a fraud alert is issued on a credit file for the victim. This fraud alert helps protect the victim from future incidents of identity theft since the victim must verify future applications for credit; however; the fraud alert does not repair the current fraudulent identity theft incident.
These documents can be obtained from a variety of web sources, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website. The IDTA asks the victim to detail and document how the fraud happened, what accounts were affected as well as what information is being used illicitly. An identity theft victim needs to fill out the IDTA completely and supply supporting documentation. As a result, the victim of identity theft must manually contact the creditors and credit bureaus to remedy the fraudulent identity theft incident Additionally, the identity theft victim must complete a FAS for each fraudulent account opened in their name (credit cards, finance company, etc.) and make copies for all the credit bureaus. For example, if a victim has had five credit card accounts fraudulently opened in their name, they will have to send eight IDTAs, e.g., three to the major credit bureaus, and one to each of the five companies where the fraudulent credit card is being used along with an FAS.
In conventional art, services and software do exist to provide a victim with the either printed or electronic forms for a victim of identity theft to fill out. However, the victim still is required to research the proper process, fill out the forms, and send the forms to the proper agencies and creditors to start the repair process. In essence, there is no method to ensure that the submitted information is acted upon.
That is, the victim must manually follow up with the proper agencies and creditors to ensure that they are taking actions to repair the identity theft. This manual process is time-consuming, error prone, tedious, and frustrating, especially for someone coping with their personal information and identity having been compromised. The repair process may take two years or longer. As a result, after these items are sent to the agencies and companies, the victim must manually follow up on the progress of these documents and their processing to make sure false information has been accurately addressed and/or changed. As such, all the responsibility for solving their Identity Theft problem rests with the victim.